Following drawn-out drama over the Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University President Jehuda Reinharz has announced he will resign at the end of this year. As with the Boston Newspaper Guild, the battle is over financial matters.
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Results tagged “roseartmuseum”
Mixed news for local art lovers. Brandeis University's committee on the Rose Art Museum issued its report today, urging the university to keep the museum open.
The Music Unites Us World Music Series has been operating for a solid half decade at Brandeis University. The series' underlying mission of connecting global cultures through sonic textures may have finally met its defining moment with a Saturday evening performance by Nettle. Making their U.S. debut in the Slosberg Music Center, the rag-tag team of musicians from different parts of the globe made a stunning and startling mark for the series. With Jace Clayton (aka renowned producer DJ/rupture) acting as impromptu ringleader, the quartet performed a tight set that combined Moroccan composition, Western-classical strings, Americana folk, hip-hop breaks, electronic beats, and a scant bit of noise into a mind-bending set.
The Rose Art Museum may look like a dead man walking, but its advocates are still filing last minute appeals. On Monday night in the Lois Foster Wing of the museum, descendants of the museum's founders, Edward and Bertha C. Rose, made a statement denouncing the “plunder” of the museum. There to back them up were former Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky, Shakespeare scholar Stephen Greenblatt, and writer Claire Messud.
Forgive Bostonist for the botanical metaphors, but where a rose once thrived, a nettle shall grow among a bush of thorns.
When Andy Warhol said that "department stores are kind of like museums," he boiled art down to its essential role as product. Last night a large group gathered at the Rose Art Museum to ask the Brandeis administration to disregard that formulation.
Damn, Brandeis is hurtin'... not just for money, but for reputation too. Wouldn't it have been nice if they could have gotten a cute little PR campaign in the media, something like "Serious Jewish college seeks some serious funds"? Instead, the school closed a little art museum that most people had never been to and the world blew up in its face. A New York Times editorial excoriates the decision, saying the sale will "create a gaping hole in Brandeis’s mission and its reputation." And now the museum's former director, Michael Rush, is lashing out, too: “Brandeis is putting its intellectual capital and very credibility as an institution of higher learning on the auction block." In an earlier Q&A, Rush emphasized that the Rose is not in financial trouble, the school is, so there's no need to donate to the Rose—just to Brandeis. Which no one wants to do now that the school has alienated most of its supporters. Sticky situation.
Sike! Brandeis may be closing the Rose Art Museum, but it's not necessarily selling all the art. Ha! That was a good one, Brandeis! We are slapping our knees over here.
Even since our post this morning, there's been a flurry of activity on the Brandeis art front. In addition to the sit-in already mentioned, there's an alumni petition opposing the closing, and a new website dedicated to saving the Rose Art Museum. Follow the links and join the cause if you want Brandeis to retain its "hidden gem." (And if you consider professor Wayne Marshall a gem in his own right, there's a campaign for him as well.) Leor at Perfect Lines has still more helpful information. Additionally, the Rose Art Museum’s Chairman of the Board of Overseers, Jonathan Lee, will be on WGBH's Greater Boston tonight at 7.
If you've never been, get to Brandeis' Rose Art Museum as soon as you can: the art is for sale and the museum is set to close soon. The school is selling the works in order to raise money for continued operations; as our inside source at Brandeis described it, the school's financial situation is "wicked bad." Brandeis president Jehuda Reinharz puts it a bit more mildly, saying "These are extraordinary times," with the school facing a possible budget shortfall of $10 million. Brandeis has already implemented a hiring freeze and is considering some other radical measures, such as requiring students to take summer courses.
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